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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27231100">tears to shed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiderlilac/pseuds/spiderlilac'>spiderlilac</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/F, Inspired by Corpse Bride, M/M, Maybe a little OOC, Oops, mentions of original character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:34:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,003</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27231100</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiderlilac/pseuds/spiderlilac</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Princess Charlotte of Hell has never cared about the fact of being technically dead — that is, until she falls in love with a mortal soul.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alastor/Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Charlie Magne/Vaggie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>tears to shed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i’ve had this idea in my mind for weeks and i just needed to get it out of my system lmao. the results were better than expected so i decided to have fun and post it somewhere, so here ya go.</p><p>also i’m new to the fandom so pls be nice to me lmao. this is inspired by the tears to shed scene in corpse bride (my absolute favorite movie) so i hope ya like it, comments are very appreciated.</p><p>ya can find me as spiderlilac in tumblr, feel free to come and chat ! xoxo</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>How unfortunate the afterlife was.</p><p>Well — for Charlie, this was just her life, since there wasn’t anything before it…</p><p>Still, her life had always been a spiral of negative feelings, featuring disappointment and unshed tears, wether it was because of her father’s choices when it came to run Hell or because she felt like nothing but the shadow of a royal demon… the princess of Hell, she was, and yet she still felt like another poor soul trapped in this realm, unable to protect her people from the angels that came every year.</p><p>That was until she met Vaggie, at least.</p><p>The simple thought of that girl made Charlie sigh. They had met in a rather unconventional way, when some of Vaggie’s friends were messing around with some rituals in hopes of summoning a demon, and Charlie attended said call.</p><p>She was bored, hanging around in her office at the hotel when she felt the energy filtering through her body, an energy she knew way too well.</p><p>Humans used to do that all the time; make messy attempts of rituals or Ouija boards and play around with things they definitely shouldn’t play with, especially if they were unaware they could catch the undesired attention of powerful and evil demons.</p><p>That being said, it was fair to say that responding to their calls was never Charlie’s thing. It wasn’t her nature to torment mortal bodies, after all, she always dreamt of better things from everyone.</p><p>That didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling curious about it. Alastor always said humans were ‘a good source of entertainment’ and always ‘made his day’ and though Charlie would never trust the judgement of her… friend, but she had to admit it did sound interesting. She was born in hell, after all, she had no idea what humans were like.</p><p>And responding the pathetic call of some college guys messing around with rituals seemed like the best chance to experiment.</p><p>She sinked in her desk-chair, closing her eyes, and focused on the call.</p><p>Her vision was finally materialized in a living room. Eight young humans were sitting down on the floor, an open book and several candles placed on the carpet inside the circle their bodies formed. One of them, a blonde girl who looked frightened, was the one reading from the book and asking questions out loud.</p><p>But before Charlie could say something, her eyes fell on another girl on the circle.</p><p>She was beautiful— no, that profane word fell small on the beauty that human girl possessed. She was so much more. With brown skin and long, ebony hair that framed her face and fell around her shoulders. She was the most gorgeous creature Charlie had ever seen, like the angels her father used to talk about. Not the ones that went down every year for extermination, the ones that remained in heaven, as a subtle reminder of why heaven was such a nice place.</p><p>Charlie desisted to interact with humans that day, leaving them to think the ritual hadn’t worked, but made sure to keep an eye on the girl that had captured her attention without even meaning to.</p><p>Vaggie, that was her name. Charlie had followed her around a world she didn’t even know for enough time to learn that, and so much more. How she acted in class, the places she frequently visited, the time she always went back to her dorm.</p><p>It was sure an exaggerated use of her power that left her exhausted afterwards, but Charlie tried to ignore the sight reprimand by herself; for a demon, she had never felt more alive!</p><p>At some point, she decided to attempt communication with Vaggie. She poured more of her energy and power into materializing her body into her dorm and started with something simple; replacing different objects around her dorm.</p><p>That did not only annoyed Vaggie, but caused a huge fight with her roommate Rick as well. Charlie never felt more ashamed realizing her plan didn’t succeed.</p><p>But she didn’t give up. Next she used Vaggie’s lipstick to write things down on the mirror on her bedroom’s wall. She laughed every time Vaggie woke up and screamed at the ‘<em>Hello!</em>’ on her reflexion, rushing to wipe it off with a terrified grimace.</p><p>Weeks and weeks passed before the human girl caught up on what was going on, and desisted of thinking it was some sort of prank from her roommate.</p><p>“Are you a ghost?” she asked one morning, without wiping off the greeting.</p><p>Charlie was shaking with anticipation. She made efforts to canalize her energy, making the lipstick float in the air one more time, going to write something else on the mirror. Vaggie was visibly panicking, but she didn’t move from her spot. She didn’t even flinch when she saw the response in front of her.</p><p>
  <em>Something like that.</em>
</p><p>“Wow. Okay,” Vaggie inhaled sharply. Suddenly, her back straightened and she looked at the mirror curiously. “Are— are you here because of that ritual at Stacy’s house?”</p><p>
  <em>Yes.</em>
</p><p>“Oh. And why are you following me? Did I— did I offend you or—”</p><p><em>Pretty</em>. The mirror read pretty. Charlie bit down on her lip as Vaggie read.</p><p>“Pretty? What does that mean?”</p><p>Unfortunately, Charlie didn’t count with energy enough to write a lot. If she had, she’d probably had started a paragraph on why Vaggie was pretty.</p><p>Instead, she wrote down ‘<em>You’</em>.</p><p>“Me? Mmm… well, thanks.”</p><p>
  <em>Charlotte.</em>
</p><p>“Charlotte?” Vaggie whispered, raising an eyebrow. Then her eyes widened in realization. “Charlotte! That’s your name! That’s… a cute name, really. Mine is Vagatha, but my friends call me Vaggie.”</p><p><em>Call me Charlie</em>.</p><p>“I never imagined a ghost named Charlie,” chuckled Vaggie. “But I like it.”</p><p>The natural course of their friendship advanced slowly but surely.</p><p>Vaggie grew used to see short messages written on her mirror every day, as well as other little things Charlie had taken the right to do, like turn the lights off when Vaggie fell asleep on the couch or make sure the alarm was off on Saturdays so she could sleep a little bit more.</p><p>The other didn’t seem to mind those little things, or to establish conversations with Charlie now and then, thinking she was just a lonely, but apparently harmless, ghost.</p><p>Charlie, on the other hand… she knew something weird was happening to her. She knew that the tug she felt at her heart every time she watched Vaggie receiving her daily greeting on the mirror wasn’t normal… or the urge to use all her power to summon a physical body in the living world and just be by her side, in that old couch in her dorm. Maybe touch her too… skin looked so soft, and maybe, just maybe, a hug wouldn’t be too bad…</p><p>No. That was so much more aggravating.</p><p>One day, Charlie took some more energy and shared with Vaggie what Hell was like and what she was doing currently with her afterlife: the Happy Hotel. She told her how she begged her dad for help, how she got Angel to participate… how she met Alastor, Husk and Niffty, and how even though they also had Baxter and Crymini now, Charlie felt like her beloved project was going nowhere.</p><p>Vaggie had sighed, looking at the mirror with a sympathetic smile.</p><p>“Charlie— don’t be sad. I think your project is great. I have no idea how Hell is like… but I’m sure they’re lucky to have someone like you there,” she looked at her own reflexion, confident and sweet, and Charlie could feel her cheeks burning.</p><p>She was blushing. Over a human.</p><p>
  <em>Do you really mean that?</em>
</p><p>“Of course I mean it. Demons should be grateful that someone wants to help them. I don’t understand why they would make fun of you.”</p><p>Oh, how love had settled in the deepest part of her corrupted soul.</p><p>It was almost impossible notice how images of Vaggie were planted in her mind all day, making her wish that somehow Charlie could join her in the living world, fantasying of a million ways they could spend eternity together.</p><p>She recognized the romantic nature of her feelings, but decided to keep them to herself. A relationship between the two would never work and Charlie knew that perfectly. She was fine invisible in the air, where she could watch over Vaggie safely.</p><p>But one day…</p><p>One day, everything wrecked.</p><p>Vaggie came back to her dorm one night with a woman Charlie didn’t know.</p><p>She had bright red hair and smudged make up, but what surprised Charlie the most was that she had her arms around Vaggie’s waist. The two of them giggled and whispered to each other, and just when Charlie thought it couldn’t be worse to have to bare the idea of sharing Vaggie’s attention, they sat down on the couch, and kissed.</p><p>Charlie’s entire body felt on fire. She felt the horns growing on top of her head, her eyes darkening, a murderous force taking over her all in expression in an anger she didn’t even feel capable to feel. All she wanted to do was to take that bitch by the fucking neck and push her away from her Vaggie—</p><p>Abruptly cutting all communication with the living world, Charlie found herself back in her desk-chair, keeping her hands forcedly in fists at her sides as tears started to blurry her vision.</p><p>Wiping the tears off her face, she decided she needed fresh air, and probably a distraction before the whole form of her inside demon came out. She sprung from her chair and stormed out of her office.</p><p>She expected Niffty to be around, but the kitchen was empty. The other residents of the hotel weren’t at sight neither, so they probably were upstairs in their own rooms.</p><p>With a sigh, Charlie let her shoulders fall. The tears were still stinging on her eyes. Before she could turn on her heels and go back to where she had come from, a muffled sound stopped her.</p><p>“I love this wine!” the voice of Angel Dust said. “It’s a lil’ expensive, though, don’t ya think?”</p><p>“Only the best for you, my dear,” another voice —Alastor’s, Charlie concluded— responded.</p><p>Charlie stepped into the lobby, sighing at the image in front of her. Alastor and Angel were sitting at the bar, the dim lights creating an intimate atmosphere as they sipped their glasses of wine. Angel seemed to be in the middle of telling Alastor some exciting anecdote, since the way his eyes shone as he spoke was familiar to Charlie, while the Radio Demon gave the spider his undivided attention.</p><p>They had been together for a while, and far from shocking Charlie as it did the other demons at the hotel (and entire Hell, honestly) it gave her hope. Something had to be right in the hotel’s plan if it achieved two demons that were so different from each other to develop such a passionate relationship… even if they didn’t admit it, or laughed every time she mentioned it, it was possible for demons to have human emotions.</p><p>In moments like this, however, Charlie couldn’t help but feel a little bitter about it. She was experimenting love herself and the unfortunate turns of events on her situation with Vaggie only made her envy them.</p><p>Angel finally noticed her presence.</p><p>“Chacha! Whatcha doin’ here? Weren’t ya goin’ to talk to yer lady tonight, hmm?” he wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.</p><p>“Ah, yes, princess. How is that little human of yours?” Alastor asked, his grin revealing his curiosity.</p><p>Charlie sniffed. Her chest felt heavy at the mere idea of having to tell them the actual outcome of that night.</p><p>Alastor and Angel were the only demons at the hotel who knew about Vaggie’s existence, and Charlie intended to keep it that way. She didn’t even want them to find our at first, but Angel had been too impatient one day and instead of knocking, he walked right into her office when she was trying to materialize a physical body in Vaggie’s dorm.</p><p>He asked questions, and she answered them, before making him promise he wouldn’t tell anyone about it. Sure, Charlie later found out that Angel’s definition of ‘anyone’ was: whoever wasn’t Alastor because “We spent way too much time together and not telling him something like that would be weird, Chacha! I know we can trust him!”.</p><p>So far, he had been right; the secret had been kept in Alastor. He at first acted skeptical about the whole thing, sure that humans were fun to play with but not interesting enough. Apparently seeing Charlie so infatuated by one made him change his mind.</p><p>She decided she wouldn’t bother to try and hide her suffering from them. It would be useless from the moment they sensed something was wrong and either Angel would press his ear against the door of her bedroom to spy on her or Alastor would do some weird magic trick to read her mind.</p><p>“We— we didn’t speak tonight.”</p><p>Angel’s smile disappeared in a second. He looked at Alastor, who looked back at him and communicated his confusion by raising an eyebrow.</p><p>“I don’t… I don’t think we will speak again, in fact,” Charlie continued, heading further into the lobby to join them at the bar. “I don’t think I would stand it.”</p><p>She sat down on the barstool at Angel’s right side.</p><p>“Whateva is eatin’ yer soul…” the spider slid his untouched glass of wine towards her, “Get it out, doll.”</p><p>Charlie chuckled sadly, but took the glass. She made it spin on her fingers before speaking again.</p><p>“I don’t know why I got my hopes up,” she confessed. “We would never work. I’m… here, and she’s up there and I— I would never compete with any human she could find…”</p><p>“Or already found,” Alastor deduced, tilting his head to a side. “Isn’t that right?”</p><p>Feeling the tears already streaming down her face, Charlie nodded weakly.</p><p>“She looked so happy with her…”</p><p>“Humans!” Angel scoffed. “Ya got so much more to offer! Ya got a wonderful personality!”</p><p>He sounded pretty confident on his words, but still got no reaction from Charlie. Starting to panic he looked at Alastor, silently begging for him to say something.</p><p>“I’ll have to agree with Angel, Charlotte!” the radio static increased as he cheerfully spoke. “What does that wispy little brat have that you don’t have double?”</p><p>“She can’t hold a candle to the beauty of yer smile, princess.”</p><p>“I don’t think my smile matters now,” Charlie sobbed, and took the glass to her lips to take a small sip. “This… woman, she’s got a pulse.”</p><p>Silence fell into the bar.</p><p>Until Alastor spoke—</p><p>No, until Alastor burst into laughter.</p><p>“Is that what you feel threatened by, darling? A pulse?” he mocked, shaking his head. “Overrated by a mile.”</p><p>“Overfed!”</p><p>Angel nodded along, standing up and walking around Charlie to reach the barstool at her own right, so she was in the middle now.</p><p>“If Vaggie only knew ya like we do…” he hesitated before his face lit up. “Maybe she wouldn’t care. Who cares about that stuff anyway? I bet that woman can’t dance or sing like you do!”</p><p>“Charlotte, there is no way your enchanting persona can be compared to some boring human!” the Radio Demon reassured.</p><p>Charlie wanted to agree with them, but that horrible feeling on her chest held her back from doing so. She couldn’t believe them right now; the jealously that came with seeing Vaggie with other woman and the despair that came with the possibility of never being able to compete with said woman only seemed to increase, making her guts coil in display of raw feelings.</p><p>“If Vaggie could see how special ya can be, she’ll marry ya in seconds!” Angel smiled brightly, pointing at his own middle finger while Alastor nodded.</p><p>“After all, the sure redeeming feature of that little creature is that she’s alive—”</p><p>“Overblown! Just a temporary state which is cured very quickly when we meet our fate!”</p><p>“No… no,” the princess took another sip of wine. “You don’t understand! She still breathes air. She’s totally capable to go out and be with Vaggie was much as she wants. She can hug her, kiss her, walk around the living world with her. And I…”</p><p>She sighed heavily, pointing at her chest as her face twisted in a painful mixture of sorrow and anger.</p><p>“I’m dead. I’m… I don’t even know what I am, since I was never alive to begin with!” she ended up yelling, slamming a fist into the bar. The rage waved down and, sobbing again, Charlie continued, “If I touch a burning candle, I feel no pain. If you cut me with a knife, in the ice or in the sun it’s all the same… I’m empty, totally empty.”</p><p>Alastor and Angel shared a look over Charlie’s shoulders, unsure of what to say.</p><p>“Her heart is beating, somewhere close to Vaggie’s, and I know that I’m dead… yet I feel my own heart is aching, though it doesn’t beat… it’s breaking.”</p><p>She kept the glass close to her mouth, shaking as she went to take another sip.</p><p>“I’m dead, and yet it seems I still have some tears to shed,” she laughed humorlessly.</p><p>A tear ran down her cheek, just in time to fall into the glass, mixing itself with the wine.</p><p>Alastor’s usual grin had quivered a little. Angel tried to reach out and place a hand on Charlie’s shoulder, but she pulled away before he could.</p><p>“Please, leave me alone.”</p><p>Both demons looked ready to protest, but somehow they knew it would be of no use.</p><p>Alastor glanced up at Charlie one more time before standing up and offering his arm to Angel, who took it with a sour expression.</p><p>The only sound beside their steps on their way through the lobby was the clicking of the wine bottle when Charlie was re-filling her glass.</p><p>How unfortunate the afterlife was.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>tumblr: spiderlilac</p></blockquote></div></div>
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